Mayor Villaraigosa joins Chabad to illuminate the City of Angels

Published on December 10, 2012

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined West Coast Chabad, city officials and community leaders on Friday to usher in the Festival of Lights by illuminating the historic Katowitz Menorah at LA City Hall.

Spectator - Once Upon a Menorah

By Tom Tugend
Published on December 22, 2005

A three-foot dancing dreidel and a visiting Holocaust survivor recall the ageless tales from a fresh perspective, when PBS station KCET airs "Chanukah Stories" on Dec. 24 and 25.

The Circuit

By Gaby Wenig
Published on January 22, 2004

The Jewish Community Foundation awarded a $7,500 grant to the Access Center of OPCC (formerly the Ocean Park Community Center). The money will be dedicated to maintaining the project's critical core programs to assist homeless youth, adults and families.

Chanukah Rights

By Amy Klein
Published on December 18, 2003

Growing up, I was one of the few children that did not receive Chanukah presents. My family gave gelt, the money that children traditionally receive on the holiday while gambling over the game of dreidel, the spinning top.

Move Over Frosty, Here Comes Fran

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal
Published on December 11, 2003

Fran Drescher doesn't remember receiving Chanukah presents as a child.

"With the Dreschers, [Chanukah] was all about the food," laughed the actress who is best known for her role in TV's "The Nanny," which aired from 1993-99. "Nothing was as important as the chocolate dreidels and chocolate coins."

Candle in the Night

By Paul Franklin Stregevsky
Published on December 5, 2002

For Chana, the Festival of Lights had begun in personal disaster. She had just lit her first candle when her phone rang. It was Martin, the East Coast "catch." Like her, Martin was modern Orthodox -- observant, but game for a good movie. Last week had marked their second date. It was a shidduch, a brokered date. Martin had used a matchmaker to find Chana. Now he was using a cell phone to lose her.

Another Oil Miracle

By Judy Zeidler
Published on December 5, 2002

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is a time to recall the miracle that occurred more than 2,000 years ago, and celebrate the discovery of the small amount of oil that burned for eight days, the amount of time needed to prepare pure oil from the local olive trees to rekindle the flame. That miracle is the focus of the Chanukah celebration that begins at sundown Friday, Nov. 29. Was it also a miracle that this event occurred at this time, since the months of November and December are the usual time for the olive harvest?

In early November this year, we joined Faith Willinger, our Florence-based food-journalist friend, on a trip to Naples and the Campania area of Italy. One of the highlights of our trip was spending several days at the hotel-restaurant La Caveja, located in the small village of Pietravairano, just a one-hour drive north of Naples.

Another Oil Miracle

By Judy Zeidler
Published on November 21, 2002

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is a time to recall the miracle that occurred more than 2,000 years ago, and celebrate the discovery of the small amount of oil that burned for eight days, the amount of time needed to prepare pure oil from the local olive trees to rekindle the flame. That miracle is the focus of the Chanukah celebration that begins at sundown Friday, Nov. 29. Was it also a miracle that this event occurred at this time, since the months of November and December are the usual time for the olive harvest?

Serious Play

By Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer
Published on December 13, 2001

We call it the Festival of Lights, but Chanukah starts in a very dark place.

Jingle Bell Rock

By J.D. Smith
Published on December 13, 2001

Jingle Bell Rock

Stolen Chanukah

By Rabbi Avrohom Czapnik
Published on December 6, 2001

As we prepare for the start of Chanukah this Sunday night, with menorahs, dreidels, presents and latkes, I wonder if we realize that Chanukah was stolen.

Lovely Light

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on December 2, 1999

Chanukah begins this evening, and not a moment too soon.
When my daughter was young and the sun rose and set on her every lesson with alphabet and equation, I bemoaned any gap between Christmas and the Festival of Lights. The closer, the better, if you ask me. How better to illustrate the primal lesson of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the pleasure and challenge of a Jew living simultaneously in two civilizations.